MEGA BREAKDOWN

Join the team who recover and reassemble the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) that launch the space shuttle into orbit. Technicians, seamen, and engineers catch, recover, and rebuild these critical vehicles, making sure that they are safe to fly every time they are bolted to the side of the launch vehicle. If they don’t get every detail exactly right, disaster can occur: on January 28, 1986, NASA lost seven astronauts in the Challenger disaster as a result of a small fault in one of the SRBs. The risks to those who carry out the SRB work are less publicized but very real, and the job demands everything from open water dive operations to working with high explosives. The launch lasts just minutes, but it’s only the beginning of a process where the lives of astronauts and the health of the entire space program hang in the balance.